《那些古怪又讓人憂心的問題》第26期:人力計算機(1)
HUMAN COMPUTER
人力計算機
Q. How much computing power could we couldachieve if the entire world population stopped whatever we are doing right nowand started doing calculations?How would it compare to a modern-day computer orsmartphone?
Q．如果全世界所有人都停下手頭的工作開始做計算，那麼一共能有多少計算能力？這些計算能力和現代的計算機或智能手機相比誰更厲害呢？
A. ON ONE HAND, HUMANS and computers dovery different types of thinking, so comparing them is like comparing applesand oranges.
A．一方面來說，人類和計算機的思考方式完全不同，所以拿它們作比較就類似於比較蘋果和橘子。
On the other hand, apples are better.1Let's try directly comparing humans and computers at the same tasks.
另一方面，蘋果要更好一些。我們不妨比較人類和計算機做相同任務時究竟誰更快。
It's easy, though getting harder every day,to invent tasks that a single human can do faster than all the computers in theworld. Humans, for example, are probably still far better at looking at apicture of a scene and guessing what just happened:
要設計出一個任務，使得一個人能比全世界所有計算機都做得快是很容易的，但每過一天難度就會更大一些。比如，人類在看一幅照片場景並猜測之前發生的事情時，目前仍遠勝於計算機。
To test this theory, I sent this picture tomy mother and asked her what she thought had happened. She immediatelyreplied, “The kid knocked overthe vase and the cat is investigating.”
爲了測試這個理論，我把這幅圖片發給我媽媽，問她認爲發生了什麼。2她立刻回覆說：“小孩兒把花瓶打碎了，那隻貓正在查看這隻花瓶。”
She cleverly rejected alternate hypotheses,including:
我的母親很聰明地否定了其他一些可能，包括：
The cat knocked over the vase.
貓撞倒了花瓶。
The cat jumped out of the vase at the kid.
貓從花瓶裏跳出來撲向孩子。
The kid was being chased by the cat andtried to climb up the dresser with a rope to escape.
貓追着孩子到處跑，孩子拿着一根繩子試圖爬到梳妝檯上逃跑。
There's a wild cat in the house, andsomeone threw a vase at it.
房間裏有一隻野貓，有個人朝它扔了一個花瓶。
The cat was mummified in the vase, but arosewhen the kid touched it with a magic rope.
貓被製成木乃伊放進了花瓶裏，當孩子用具有魔力的繩子碰了一下後貓復活了。
The rope holding the vase broke and the catis trying to put it back together.
固定花瓶的繩子斷了，而這隻貓正試圖把它放回去。
The vase exploded, attracting a child and acat. The child put on the hat for protection from future explosions.
花瓶爆炸了，把孩子和貓都吸引了過來。小孩兒戴上了帽子，防止後續爆炸傷到他。
The kid and cat are running around tryingto catch a snake. The kid finally caught it and tied a knot in it.
孩子和貓跑來跑去想要抓住一條蛇，小孩兒最終抓住了蛇並把它打了個結。
